Popular TV presenter Scarlette Douglas has confessed to a fear of flying, due to a tragic near-miss with a fatal plane crash that claimed over 200 lives. Despite hosting Channel 4's A Place in the Sun for seven years, Scarlette harbours a dislike for air travel following the loss of her friend in the Air France Flight 447 disaster, which crashed into the mid-Atlantic Ocean. The global tragedy in June 2009 resulted in the death of all 228 people onboard, including Scarlette's friend.

Scarlette, who participated in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2022, was originally meant to be on the ill-fated flight. Her friend had booked tickets for both of them, but a job commitment in Hollywood prevented Scarlette from making the journey.

The 38 year old presenter, hailing from Enfield, north London, revealed this heart-wrenching detail at the Taste of London Food Festival opening party in Regent's Park this week. Speaking to a Daily Mail reporter, she said: "I lost a really good friend of mine in the Air France crash from Brazil to France. The scary thing was I was supposed to be on that flight. She had booked it", reports the Mirror.

As a result, Scarlette admits to "hating flying", a sentiment that posed a challenge during her tenure on A Place in the Sun. She hosted the programme and its various spin-offs between 2015 and 2022, prior to her stint on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

The celebrity was questioned about air travel following the devastating Air India plane crash, which resulted in all but one of the passengers on the Boeing perishing. The ill-fated flight, bound for Gatwick Airport, tragically crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad, western India, claiming the lives of 53 Britons.

While the investigation into the crash is ongoing, an aviation expert has suggested that the co-pilot mistakenly adjusted the plane's wing flaps instead of retracting the landing gear shortly after take-off.

However, inconsistent airspeed readings and miscommunication led to the pilots unintentionally stalling the ill-fated Air France plane, which carried Scarlette's friend in 2009. The pilots were unable to recover the plane from the stall, resulting in the aircraft plunging into the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

The investigation faced challenges as the aircraft's flight recorders were not retrieved from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years post the accident. The final and definitive report by France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) was eventually published in July 2012.

Most of the passengers onboard the four year old Airbus were Brazilian and French nationals. However, five unfortunate Brits also lost their lives in the disaster, including 11 year old Alexander Bjoroy, oil worker Graham Gardner, and PR executive Neil Warrior.